


Black Walls Surrounding

by Pins_and_Patches



Series: Black Walls Surrounding / Save My Soul [1]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Branding, Captivity, Cults, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Murder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Torture, Trauma, Waterboarding, Whump, and there's a sequel that deals with the trauma he experiences but that one's a WIP lmao, so four kinda suffers a lot but then he gets treated with love and care and support
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:08:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25626448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pins_and_Patches/pseuds/Pins_and_Patches
Summary: One night while he's alone in Time's world, Four is kidnapped by a cult who wants to break him until he's merely a weapon for their use to destroy the Links.He's broken down to a mere shell of himself, branded and tortured and manipulated until he's just become nothing, but when he's brought to safety and treated with love once more, it's scary. It feels wrong. It's too far from what he knows.And he has to hope that he'll learn to be loved again.(Part 1 of 2)
Relationships: Four & Legend (Linked Universe), Four & Sky (Linked Universe), Four & Wild (Linked Universe), Four (Linked Universe) & Malon (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Black Walls Surrounding / Save My Soul [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857631
Comments: 16
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

Alone in the dark, as the others sleep, Four can swear he hears footsteps and whispers around him, but they’re so far away he can’t tell.

Four’s paranoia begins to get the best of him, however, so he takes one of the torches Wild always keeps with him, lights it with the campfire and starts towards the source of one of the noises. 

Immediately he regrets his decision as he’s grabbed from behind by a man and an arm comes tightly around his throat, stopping him from breathing. He sees, as the man grabs him, a tattoo on his hand in the shape of an upside-down Triforce.

He drops the torch, which is put out immediately by the wet grass, and claws at the man’s arm, only to have his own arms subdued and held to his side tightly.

Through coughs and strained breaths, he tries to form words.

“H… Help!” He chokes out.

The man comes close to Four, and despite his mask he can feel his breaths against his neck.

“They aren’t coming,” He whispers in Four’s ear.

He tightens his grip around Four’s throat, and despite his best efforts to fight back, he only lasts a few seconds before everything goes black.

Four wakes up in a dark, musty room.

The first thing he notices is that he can’t see. There’s a rag covering his face. It looks like it was once white, but time- and perhaps other things- have turned it a more coppery color.

It smells faintly of blood. 

He tries to lift it, but it’s tied down tight. Just like his limbs.

And he seems to be at least somewhat upside-down, facing upward but with his head at an angle slightly below the rest of his body.

“What’s going on?” He mumbles.

“He’s awake, Zora,” A voice states. The same voice as the man who’d kidnapped him.

“Good,” A woman replies. She must be Zora, Four thinks. “I was just about ready to wake him up myself.”

The woman laughs, but it has a malicious tone to it.

“Link,” Zora says, “The Hero of the Four Sword. Able to transform into the size of a Minish and split into four. That’s you, correct?”

The words  _ how do you know that _ are on his tongue, but he knows better.

“No,” He says sharply. “That’s not me. Why are you looking for him? And what do you want?”

Zora must hit something, because it makes a loud slamming noise. Four’s body convulses in a poor attempt to flinch while tied down.

“Do  _ not _ speak to me like that!” She shouts. “I know who you are, Link. Now just answer one question.”   


She leans in close, and through the rag he can almost make out her mask. There are what look like fins on the ears, and that’s the best he can do in the way of details.

_ A Zora mask? _

_ Well, that would explain the name. _

“Are you going to make this easy on us?” She asks. “Or will we have to force what we want out of you?”

Four scowls. “Whatever you want from me- answers about the others, answers about my abilities,  _ whatever-  _ I’m not fucking giving you  _ anything _ .”

Zora laughs. “I guess, then, we’ll just have to force it out of you.”

She snaps her fingers. “Skull!”

“Yes, Zora?”

“Waterboard the boy until he agrees to comply.”

A man with a skull mask- Skull, probably, the man who’d kidnapped him- approaches Four with a bucket, water sloshing out of it from the motion, and the next thing he knows, dirty water is flowing down his face, soaking his hair and skin. It’s rushing into his nose and mouth, and he’s choking, gagging, struggling to breathe beneath the dirty rag on his face. The water smells disgusting, like rotting flesh, and he swears it has a taste to it.

“I told you,” Zora says, “We’ll just force it out of you.”   


Four can’t reply. He’s more focused on just trying to breathe, but he can’t, he  _ can’t, he can’t breathe _ and he’s so scared, he’s  _ so scared _ , he has to get out, he  _ has to, he has to… _

“Stop!” He manages. “Stop, please!”

Zora laughs. “Why should we?”

“I- I’ll give you- I-” He breaks off into uncontrollable coughs, trying to resist the urge to vomit from the taste and the smell of the water.  _ Please, Hylia, make it stop! Make it stop! _ “Whatever it is you- you want from me! I’ll give it-” He coughs again, acid rising in his throat.

Zora leans in. “Well, there we go. Was that so hard?”

She snaps her fingers and the water stops. He gasps for air. His eyes are burning and he’s struggling to not cry.

Zora pulls the rag off of Four’s face and Four shoots up. His arms are still uncomfortably tied behind his back, but he can sit up, he can move,  _ he can breathe _ , he can  _ finally _ breathe, he was  _ so scared… _

Now more than ever Four wants to just break down, but he keeps on a brave face.

“What do you want, anyway?” He snaps.

“We want your power.”

“I’m not fuckin’ giving you my-!” He screams as Zora raises her arm, curling into himself. “Wh- what do you want me to do? I- I can’t give it away, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, please don’t hurt me, I don’t know what to do, I can’t give you my ability, I’m sorry, I-”

“ _ Stop apologizing or I’ll waterboard you again! _ ” Zora shouts, her tattooed hand harshly colliding with Four’s cheek.

“ _ NO! Please, don’t! Please! No! I won’t do it again! _ ” Four begs. He’s rambling, he knows it, but he’s just _ so scared. _ “What do you want me to do? How do I give it to you? What can I do?”

“We don’t need you to  _ give _ us your power. We just need you to use it for us.”

“What? No! I-”

Zora only needs to raise her arm threateningly and Four cowers beneath her.

“Okay, fine! I’ll do whatever it is you want out of me!”   


“Well, there we go. Keaton!”

Another young woman wearing a Keaton mask rushes to Zora’s side.

“Take him to where he’ll be staying.”

Keaton grabs Four, cuts the ropes behind his arms and, in one swift motion, locks him up in handcuffs around the front of his body. He hesitantly stands up from the board he was on and follows Keaton through a hallway, down a set of stairs, then through a door into a room which seems to be made of dirt. It smells vaguely of a corpse as well, and that’s probably because…

He yelps and jumps away as he accidentally steps on a pale, bloody disembodied arm on the ground.

“Watch out for the Dead Hand,” Keaton says nonchalantly, readjusting her mask. Four notes that just like Zora and Skull, Keaton has the same upside-down Triforce tattoo on the back of her hand. “It’s long since been killed, but its body remains here.”

“Why?” Four asks, inching away from her.

“Just because.”

Then a question that’s been bothering Four since he was waterboarded comes out:

“Why did the water Skull used on me smell so bad… and taste bad too?”

Keaton simply pushes Four forward after a moment’s pause. “Enough questions. Keep walking.”

Four doesn’t want to think about the implications of the way she hesitates.

Finally Four has made it far enough in that she’s satisfied. No explanation is given, all she says is, “And don’t you  _ dare _ try to take off the handcuffs.”

The door shuts and Four is alone in the dark again.

Only this time, he’s trapped in a room with a dead mutant body, his hair is soaked and dripping onto his shoulders and down his back, he’s just been kidnapped and waterboarded by a cult, and the others still don’t even know he’s gone.

Now that he’s alone, Four collapses onto the ground, no longer able to keep himself from crying.

He’s never felt so hopeless or scared or alone in his life.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s a bell that wakes him up.

Zelda. The bell. Vaati. Where is Zelda?

The bell rings again.

She’s not here.  She’s gone. She’s dead. He couldn’t save her.

The bell rings for a third time.

Three chimes of the bell. He's too late. He's failed. He's too late. Zelda's gone.

With every sharp breath Four lets out, a soft whimper escapes. Then it becomes a sob and soon Four is once again crying uncontrollably. He’s grabbing onto himself, he wants to ground himself and believe this isn’t real, but he can’t focus on anything and all he can hear is the bell.

“What is going on?” Keaton demands as the door opens.

Four gasps, looking up. “H- Huh?”

“What is happening?”

“I… I don’t… The bell… I…” His words don’t come out properly between sobs.

“The bell?” Keaton echoes.

“The… The bell… Vaa… Zelda… I…”

“Knock it off!” Keaton shouts.

Four screams, raising his cuffed hands over his head and crying louder.

“Quit crying. I brought food for you, and in ten minutes, Zora has some plans for you, whether or not you’re ready.” She drops a plate onto the ground in front of Four. “Understand?”

Four sniffles. “I- I understand.”

“Good.”

The door shuts again.

Despite that he doesn’t particularly want to, Four forces himself to down the food he’s given, despite that the handcuffs pose a minor issue. It’s small, after all- only a piece of bread, some eggs and a glass of water, luckily normal this time- and it’s all he’ll be getting for Hylia knows how long.

His mind trails back to the others. They’ve probably noticed he’s gone by now.

But then what? They can’t really do anything to save him. He probably can’t even  _ be _ saved.

And... 

Four was gone for almost a full hour before Sky’s watch shift began.

What if they were attacked during that time?

What if they’re dead now?

The tears which were still brimming in his eyes start to spill down his face, which is stained with dirt from sleeping on the ground.

He’s only been here one night but  _ gods _ , he misses them _ so much _ .

The door opens. Four’s sadness is outweighed by terror. The ten minutes he had are up.

Keaton approaches him.

He hides his face with his arms, hoping Keaton hadn’t seen the tears steadily flowing down his cheeks.

She grabs his wrists, digging her long nails into his skin, and yanks him forward, ignoring how he yells out in pain.

“You fucking crying again?” She hisses.

“I-”

“You’d better _ toughen up _ or you’re not gonna last a damn _ second  _ out there,  _ hero _ .” She pulls him to his feet, shoving him towards the door and turning to follow him. “Now go.”

He slowly begins to walk up the stairs. He pauses when he reaches the top until Keaton knees him in the back.

“Quit stalling,” She demands. “The more time you take to get there will only mean we make the process longer.”

“What process? Are you going to waterlog me again?”

“Enough questions!” Keaton barks and Four flinches. There’s no hesitation this time, but it doesn’t make Four feel any less scared. “The word is water _ board _ , and we might get impatient and do it again if you don’t  _ start moving! _ ”

Four silently begins walking as fast as he can until he reaches Zora and another woman with a mask, who he can only assume is Deku, given her Deku Scrub mask.

“Took you long enough,” Zora says sharply. “Deku, handle it from here. Keaton, you’re off for now.”

Keaton shoves Four into a wooden chair, clipping together his restraints, and he makes no effort to stop her. She leaves once Four is situated, and Deku- whose name is rather proud of himself for correctly guessing- draws a sharp knife.

Immediately Four glares bitterly at her. “What are you going to do? Stab me? Slit my wrists?”

“No,” Deku says simply. “I’m just going to cut your hair.”

“Hey! No!”

Deku says nothing else, she simply brings the knife to Four’s hair, just below jaw level.

“I’m serious! Knock it off!”

Paying no mind to Four’s protest, Deku begins to gently saw at Four’s blond hair.

“ _ Don’t touch me! _ ”

He lurches away, and the knife cuts into his neck. He hisses in pain as he’s hit with a burning sensation where the knife cut his skin.

“Shit…” He whispers.

Deku grabs him by his neck, holding him against the chair. Despite that he can hardly breathe, he doesn’t waste his energy trying to tell her to let him go. He knows she won’t listen.

Harshly pulling him back and forth, she cuts his hair in a choppy manner, paying no attention to how many times she cuts his skin instead or knocks his head into the chair he’s strapped to.

By the end he's dizzy, his neck is sore and stinging, and he's furious with Deku for doing this to him. It's like they're just stripping him of what makes him Four- and maybe that's their goal.

He lifts his hands to the back of his neck. His hair has been messily cut to his jawline. It’s uneven and there are strands which remain their initial length and he wonders, if he had a mirror, just how awful would he look right now?

He dejectedly drops his hands back down onto his lap.

“If you’re really that unhappy, I could cut further.” She runs the knife across the back of Four’s neck. He draws in a sharp breath as it cuts the skin again and Deku laughs.  _ Just how sharp is this knife? _ Four wonders.

“Well,” Deku says, “I should probably stop messing with you.”

“...That’s it?” Four asks incredulously. Even if he hates having short hair, he hates the way it’s cut, and he feels as though he’s being stripped of himself, it’s nothing compared to last night.

“Oh, no, not at all.”

“Right,” He scoffs, angry at himself for getting his hopes up that they weren’t going to do something awful to him. “So what  _ is _ going to happen?”

“You may think you need a spell, but the ability to shrink on command is coded within your body, Link,” Deku says. “And we’re going to bring it out.”

“How so?”

Deku looks at the others.

Keaton shrugs.

“We’re going to try to induce a life-threatening fear in you that will cause you to shrink.”

“W- What? Why would you-!” Four is cut off by a loud bell behind him.

It rings three times, over and over. Four covers his ears, but it doesn’t stop the ringing and it doesn’t stop the images in his head.

“Stop!” He begs. “Please! Please stop!”

_ One, two, three. One, two, three. _

On the twelfth ring of the bell, Four curls in on himself, desperately covering his ears, and then…

He’s the size of a Minish again.

Everyone gasps.

“It worked!” Keaton exclaims. “Now change back.”

Four takes a deep breath and tries to focus all of his strength on turning back as a thousand ideas rush through his head of ways they can hurt him like this, how much more vulnerable he is like this, how…

“Well, this certainly seems to be… A step in the right direction,” Zora says.

Four looks up. He’s normal sized again, standing on the ground in front of the chair he’d been strapped to.

Somehow, by shrinking and returning, he’s escaped the chair.

“What…? How did I…”

“What do we do now?” Deku asks.

“Well, I admit I was expecting it to take longer, but we’ll just move on. Push it to its limits. Try and get him to do it just on command.”

Four is once again thrown into the Dead Hand room, chained up by his handcuffs to just barely where he can’t reach. He lifts himself onto his toes to avoid hanging by his arms.

“If you can shrink and grow again to escape, we’ll let you off.”

After only a few minutes, Four’s feet are sore and strained. Despite his best efforts, he can’t change.

And he’s already exhausted.

_ Gods, he’s so tired… _

He whimpers softly, trying to keep his composure.

_ You’d better toughen up or you’re not gonna last a damn  _ **_second_ ** _ out there,  _ **_hero._ **

Blood is starting to trickle slowly down his arms.

That’s definitely a sign this is enough hanging, but…

His feet are so tired. He can’t hold himself up any longer.

Deku opens the door.

“Still nothing? Did you forget that this is merciful?” She reprimands.

“I’m sorry, it’s just not working, I-”

Four is cut off by Deku hitting him again. “Hurry it up, Link, or we’ll go back to waterboarding.”

All it takes is the mention of being waterboarded and Four feels like he’s choking. The taste of the dirty water returns to him and he feels like he’s going to vomit again.

He curls in on himself and in an instant-

“There we go,” Deku says. “Just needed a little more of a push.”

He feels so exposed, helpless, weak… 

He covers his head in defense, hoping it’ll somehow protect him.

“Well, now you’ve got it.”


	3. Chapter 3

Seconds seem to melt into hours as Four paces alone in his… his  _ cell? _

He supposes that’s what it is.

He still hasn’t grown used to the lingering scent of the Dead Hand that remains with what’s left of its body as it slowly rots.

As  _ he _ slowly rots.

How long has he been here? How many times has he gone through the same routines over and over? Has it been days? _Weeks,_ even? It feels like months or years, but he knows that's not right.

The bell echoes in his head.

_ I have to get out of here. _

It’s despite his better judgement and he knows it, but something in his brain begins formulating a plan.

_ But… What if we get caught? _

_ We won’t. Haven’t we done stuff like this before? _

_ But what  _ if _ we get caught? _

_ We run. If they pursue, we fight them off. _

_ We can’t do that! _

_ Sure we can. _

_ But- _

Four feels a shiver go down his spine.

_ Okay, okay, we can try! But don’t say I didn’t warn you. _

He looks up, as though trying to get a glimpse of what’s happening in his brain.

Someday he hopes he can understand.

Four crawls out through a small hole in the wall, wondering why they never bothered to get it filled in.

He doesn’t pay attention to the moist dirt beneath and around him and how it’s soaking into his palms and his pants and rubbing across his shoulders onto his tunic.

He’s already so dirty from his time here, he’s sure this is hardly much more.

He slowly climbs out the other side, and he sees that the room is completely empty. Perhaps it’s too early for anyone to be awake.

He’s not sure, honestly. The only way he knows is the…

The bell rings out in his ears again and he covers them tightly, trying his best not to make a single sound.

The adrenaline that fills him only makes him more determined.

Carefully, he goes through puddles of dark water, around walls, and…

He gasps quietly.

He can see the exit.

“...We’re almost there. He’s unstable enough that we’ve got him at our command. All we need to do is get him to split, and even if his fragments are as fiery as he is, they  _ mentally cannot withstand fighting back. _ They’ll try maybe once, and that’s about as much as they can take. Any more than that will break them and either they’re smart enough to know that or we’ll have them completely under our thumb.”

Skull’s voice echoes through the chamber. It seems to be getting closer.

Four tenses up, hoping they haven’t heard him.

“Not to mention, Deku,” Keaton says, “It’s mostly been you administering beatings and the like.”

“Well, you’re right, but don’t you think that waterboarding him was a bit much?” Deku asks.

Silence.

“Well, okay,” She adds quickly. “I mean, you don’t think it was too far to waterboard him with the water the  _ Redeads  _ were rotting in? That’s  _ completely  _ inhumane. I mean, those are pretty much  _ actual corpses _ .”

“It  _ has _ to be inhumane, Deku,” Keaton replies. “If we treat him normally we can’t get him to do anything for us, let alone be our weapon against his friends.”

Four’s stomach churns. Whatever Deku says in response he can’t pick up on over the ringing in his ears. His head is reeling.

Redeads.

_ Corpses _ .

Real,  _ actual  _ dead human beings.

No  _ wonder  _ the water smelled so awful and had a taste to it.

There were _bodies rotting in_ _it_.

He tries not to visualize it, he feels sick at just the thought, but his brain has other plans.

All he can think of are the Redeads, rotting in some room, their emaciated clay-like corpses seeping into the water beneath them as they decay…

He lurches forward, coughing and retching as bile runs from his mouth into the murky water in the ground beneath him.

His ears only stop ringing when his stomach is empty.

And then he sees Deku, Skull and Keaton.

Four isn’t aware he’d been unconscious, but he wakes up in unbearable pain. He screams, kicks his legs out, does everything he can to try and stop the horrible burning sensation in his left hand.

The heat is radiating from whatever is touching his left hand 

A red-hot branding iron is pulled off of his hand and he hesitantly looks down at where his arms, still handcuffed, sit in front of him.

An  _ upside-down Triforce _ has been _branded_ onto the back of his left hand. 

_ Just like the tattoos the cultists share. _

He wants to scream, or cry, or do  _ anything  _ at all _ , _ but he’s stuck just looking at the burn mark in horror.

The mark of the cult is permanently engraved on his hand.

Deku wraps something around Four’s branding, they put a mask around his face, and then he’s yanked from the chair.

“Take him back to his cell,” Zora says sharply. “ _ Now! _ ”

There’s a flash of white light and suddenly, in Four’s place is not himself, but Red, Blue, Green and Vio.

Zora laughs.

“Well, look who’s decided to make an appearance.”

The way Red’s eyes are darting from the other three to the cultists makes Green worry he’s planning something.

_ Red, don’t, _ Green thinks.  _ It’s not worth it. _

He locks eyes with Red for just a second, hoping to get his message across.

Then Red breaks eye contact, looking back to the cultists. There’s a fire in his crimson eyes.

_ Red, NO-! _

Keaton and Deku throw Four into their cell, and as soon as he’s hit the ground Zora grabs Red’s handcuffed arms and yanks him to her, just like Keaton did the first morning.

But the phantom pain in Green’s arm and the pained cry that escapes Red says that she does it with significantly more force.

“You  _ stupid _ ,  _ ignorant, reckless, DISOBEDIENT LITTLE SHIT! _ ” She screams at him.

“I’m sorry!” He pleads. “Don’t hurt me! I won’t ever do it again!”

“Well, I wasn’t  _ going  _ to,” She says, letting his arms go and instead lifting him by his collar, “But now that you  _ mention  _ it-”

“ _ NO! _ ” Vio cries out.

Zora looks at Vio in shock.

“...Don’t hurt him,” Vio begs softly. “Please.”

Zora scoffs, roughly flinging Red at the ground.

“Reform by morning. You have eight hours. If you can prove that you can split and reform as well as you can shrink and grow, I’ll spare you. If not, you’re of no use to us, and we have no reason to even keep you alive.”

She turns and leaves.

“Don’t bother trying to sleep,” Keaton warns them all. “Your masks prevent that.”

The door shuts.

Immediately Red begins trying to take off the mask.

He tries to just yank it off of his face to no avail.

He raises his hands over his head, looking for where it’s fastened at the back. Handcuffed, he can’t reach it.

He screams in rage and agony.

He can’t get the mask off. He can’t sleep with it on. They’re doing this to him. They’re destroying all of them.

He sinks down, curling into a ball, and just lays there, unable to feel any more anger or sadness.

Red doesn’t realize when the others come to his side.

He hardly even feels their touch against his back.

They stay split for two of the eight hours, then they all weakly agree to reform.

Four feels overwhelmingly numb once he’s reformed. His wrists are sore, his hand aches, but he hardly even feels it over the emptiness in his brain.

He’s nothing anymore.


	4. Chapter 4

After what feels like forever, Keaton opens the door. The mask is taken off of Four’s face, and immediately exhaustion overcomes him. Were it not for the adrenaline rushing through him, he swears he’d pass out immediately.

“Give me your hand,” She demands.

Four stands up, careful of his branded hand, which is still aching. He holds out his other hand to her.

“You gonna burn this hand too?” He hisses.

Keaton yanks his other hand up. “I meant this one. We aren’t planning to do anything with the other.”

She changes the bandages on it. “Still just a mark, some blisters. Bleeding shouldn’t start for a couple more days. Tell us if it does. We need you alive,” She states.

“...Right. What do you have for me today?”

“Combat,” Keaton says simply.

“Here,” Zora says, “You will be tasked with winning a fight to the death against Stone. If you win, kill him. If you lose, we’ll allow him to kill you  _ however he wants. _ ”

A man with a smooth grey mask approaches Four, sword in hand.  _ Stone. _

Four is given a sword, tossed aimlessly at his feet.

He’s run once more through the commands they’ve been practicing. Split, Minish, Reform. Follow those commands immediately upon being given them.

“If not commanded, you’re on your own,” Zora tells him. “Deku will be commanding you.”

Four nods slowly, picking up the sword.

Before he’s even able to get back on his feet properly, Stone attacks.

Four shrinks, evading the attack, and quickly returns to normal size so they can’t hurt him.

_ Nothing like the adrenaline rush of nearly getting killed to wake you up in the morning, huh? _ He thinks offhandedly.

“Split!” Deku commands.

A flash of white light blinds Stone, giving Red and Blue a chance to close in.

But he’s too quick.

_ Get the sword out of his hands!  _ Vio thinks, only to realize that since they’re split, he has to speak out loud.

“The sword!” He exclaims. They all look at him in confusion.

“...What?” Green asks.

“Get it!” He says.

Red’s eyes light up.

“Right! Blue!”

Blue looks to Red, confused, but just by locking eyes it’s like they can read each other’s thoughts.

“You two keep us covered!” Blue calls.

“Hey,  _ I’m _ the leader!” Green shoots back.

Blue pays no attention.

Green scoffs. “Fine."

Vio smiles. “It’s funny, you know, how those two are… Almost tele-”

Stone is gone.

Vio’s purple eyes widen.

And in only the time that takes, he’s disappeared from where he was and run toward him, drawing his sword…

And stabbing Stone  _ through  _ the shoulder.

His arm comes off.

Stone screams in pain.

Zora laughs.

“Reform!” Deku commands.

Hesitantly, Four reforms into one, trying to avert his eyes from the bloody arm on the ground.

“Behind him! Minish!”

There’s no time to lose. Trying to channel Vio’s almost superhuman speed, Four takes off, running around Stone in a half-circle, then looks back at Zora.

Just seeing her mask channels the fear in him which allows him to shrink.

He climbs onto Stone’s back.

“Reform!”   


His weight as a full human is enough to knock Stone to the ground.

“Now! Finish him!”

Four raises his sword.

“N… No…” Stone chokes out. “Please… Please spare me… I’m begging you…”

Four falters. He’s about to agree and allow Stone to surrender when Zora shouts at him.

“ _ Link! _ Don’t you  _ dare  _ pity him. Finish him off,  _ now! _ ”

Four grips his sword tightly, trying to ignore the voices in his head begging him not to, and Stone’s terrified cries.

Stone is crying.

“Please… Link, please… Ple a s e -”

Four shoves the sword down into Stone’s neck.

He expects himself to start crying, panicking, regretting it, but…

He’s numb.

He feels so empty.

He’s nothing but a husk of himself.

“Four!”

He’s sure he’s hallucinating, because he swears he hears Zelda’s voice echoing from the entrance.

But based on how the other cultists all look in shock at the source, it must be real.

He slowly looks up.

Sure enough, Zelda is standing in the entrance with Sky, Legend and Wild. She’s wearing one of his older tunics, which he vaguely feels would’ve once made him smile.

“Four! Oh, thank Hylia you’re alive.”

“Get out,” He says numbly. “Go away. You can’t help me.”

Emotionlessly killing a man begging for mercy. Becoming just a weapon for a cult. Being broken to a mere husk of himself.

He’s too far gone.

“Link!” Deku shouts.

Four looks up at her.

“Attack the intruders!”

“Looks like we’ve already got our first chance,” Zora says. “Don’t blow this for us, Link.”

“Split!”

It happens so easily. He’s so numb, he hardly has to even think about it.

The Four are silent as they fight, skillfully dodging and administering attacks.

Green goes after Zelda. She’s easy to take down.

“Finish her!”

Green raises his sword over Zelda too.

“Four,  _ stop! _ ”

She kicks him away. His head smacks against the wet stone ground hard.

A dull ache rings through the others' heads.

In just that moment, Zelda disappeared.

_ Crunch. _

Green looks over to the noise. Deku’s neck is twisted at an unnatural angle, and her body is limp on the ground.

Above her is Zelda.

Stopping the fighting, Four reforms, his dead cobalt eyes staring into Zelda’s.

“Four, please. I know you’re in there! Please, you have to stop this! Let us save you!”

Four’s body goes weak as he’s suddenly thrown back into full consciousness.

But only for a second, as he goes numb again.

His gaze is fixated on the other masked cultists, all frozen in shock.

He steadily gets up and approaches the group.

The next thing he knows, he’s sitting on his knees, surrounded by corpses.

“ _Link_.”

Zora’s voice catches his attention.

“What did you _do?_ ”

Four is silent.

“You’re a _monster_. _Look_ at what you’ve done. I have half a mind to _rip you apart with my bare hands_ for this.”

Four slowly gets up from his knees, paying no mind to Zora’s threats. Is he weak? Does he nearly fall as he stands up?

He’s not sure.

His vision is red.

Blue.

Green.

Violet.

He feels sick and weak from days, maybe even  _ weeks  _ spent in this hell.

But nonetheless, he stumbles toward Zora.

The last surviving member of the cult.

“Don’t you  _ dare, _ ” She hisses through her mask.

Her threats mean nothing anymore. Four is beyond the fear that overtook him all those times as he complied with every awful thing they did to him, even if only in this moment.

He rips the mask off her face.

The blue eyes beneath show nothing but fear.

Blue eyes, light skin, short brown hair.

This is the face of the woman who tortured him until he broke.

He shoves her against the wall. Puts one hand on her neck and the other on the back of her head.

“Link,  _ don’t! Don’t you dare! You’ll regret it! _ ”

He growls in anger at Zora’s nerve.

It slowly grows into a furious scream.

He yanks her head back.

Any sound she makes is drowned out by Four’s screams as he slams her head into the wall.

A sickeningly wet  _ crunch _ rings out through the room as her head collides with the wall, her skull seemingly breaking on impact.

Blood splatters onto the wall.

Four doesn’t pay attention.

He draws her bloody, broken head back and shoves it into the wall again.

And again.

And again.

Still screaming.

He hits her head against the wall five times, even though she was already dead after the first.

The blood splatter on the wall grows and begins to mix with brain matter as her skull is crushed further and further.

And then he drops her dead body and loosens his posture.

He’s still standing in a defensive position. The way he’s hunched over makes his arms hang loosely. His hands are soaked with the cultist’s blood and his tunic’s sleeves are wet with his own. He’s breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving with every breath he takes.

He looks completely unhinged.

Or at least he would…

But he’s staring at the bloodstained wall in horror, tears beginning to form in his eyes as the gravity of what he’s done sinks in on him.

He stumbles to the ground. Tears are flowing down his pale, dirty face.

He can’t bring himself to cry anymore.

Legend hesitantly approaches him and gently places his hand on his shoulder.

“Let’s get out of here, why don’t we?”


	5. Chapter 5

They all want to go quickly, but they’re not going to leave Four behind at all, so even though it means drastically slowing down, they all stay by him.

He clings tightly to Zelda the whole time. Even though it must be uncomfortable, especially given how bloody he is, she says nothing. All she does is keep her arm around him.

When they finally return to- not their camp but Lon Lon Ranch- it’s quiet. They’re slow to approach him, ask him if he’s okay, tell him they’re glad he’s back, everything they want to say to him. Even Wind and Wild are quiet and calm.

“Give me your arms,” Zelda says gently.

Four gives his arms out, desperately hoping she doesn’t notice his bandages.

She pulls out a ring of keys and unlocks his handcuffs.

“Where did you get those?” He asks.

“Took them from the cultist I killed,” Zelda says simply. “Be careful, this might hurt.”

Four hisses in pain as the handcuffs are pulled off of his wrists. The skin they’d worn through it reopened as they’re removed.

“I’m sorry,” Zelda says softly. “It should be better now.”

Four nods slowly.

“If you’re up for it, I think you ought to take a shower,” Malon suggests as she passes by. “In the meantime, I’ll wash your clothes.”

“Do you think he’ll be… Okay?” Sky asks quietly as they all wait.

“It depends on your definition of ‘okay’, I think,” Wind says. “Physically, I’m sure he’ll be alright, but I’m not so sure about mentally. Any number of things can be traumatic, and when a person is previously traumatized, it’s like their heart is no longer theirs, like it’s for sale. Anyone who would not have access to it before can take it for their own and do whatever they want with it with no guarantee that the person who it rightfully belongs to will get it back intact or even at all. I dunno how bad what he went through was, but I think that if it was enough to mentally break him like you described, Dot…”

Everyone looks at Wind, surprised. He looks away awkwardly.

“...I- I think that this is probably gonna fuck some shit up. So don’t go expecting him to make a full mental recovery. Whatever happens, it’s going to be at his own pace, not ours,” He finishes quickly.

Malon can't help but note how he sounded so calm, confident and intelligent until he realized they were staring.

_ He seems to be the type who prefers people underestimate him than overestimate him, _ Malon assumes.  _ Just like Time. _

As Four gets redressed, struggling to fight his overwhelming exhaustion, his brand on his no-longer-bandaged hand catches his eye.

It’s swollen and blistered. It looks almost  _ infected _ .

Four’s heart rate starts to pick up, and before he can even register what was happening, he’s the size of a Minish again.

He involuntarily cries out.  _ What the hell happened? _

_ Deep breaths. Deep breaths. _

He focuses all of his energy on calming himself or at least making himself safer. He may be less scared in the moment, but he’s far more vulnerable in this state.

“It’s okay,” He tells himself, gripping the sink and looking into the mirror as he bandages his hands and wrists. “That’s normal. This is normal. You’re just fine. You’re  _ just fine. You’re… Just fine… Y… _ ”

He can’t breathe. His head is spinning. He stumbles, trying to get ahold of himself. He feels weak and dizzy and sick and so  _ scared. _

There’s a knock on the door. Four yelps, nearly shrinking again. He scrambles to open it.

Malon stands on the other side.

“Four, are you alright?” Malon asks, reaching out to him.

Four nods, taking her hand but careful not to use his branded one.

She’s so gentle, though, he wonders what difference it would’ve made.

Malon leads him out to where the others are sitting and waiting for him.

He sits down.

Four feels their eyes burning into him. He’s sure they’ve all noticed that his hands are both bandaged. He’s sure they’ve all noticed how tense he is. He’s sure they’ve all noticed him constantly looking down at his left hand. He’s sure-

“ _ Don’t touch me! _ ” Four shouts, yanking away from Wild, who had reached out to touch one of the remaining longer strands of Four’s hair.

Wild draws back, shocked by Four’s outburst.

“I’m sorry!” Four says quickly. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to, I got… I was just… I’m… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I won’t do it again! I…” He struggles to find words as he desperately apologizes.

“It’s okay,” Wild says gently. “It’s alright. You caught me off guard is all. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Four searches Wild for any hint of cruelty, hate, anger,  _ anything- _ but he doesn’t seem to have any sort of malicious intent.

Finally he relaxes a little bit.

“Did they do that to your hair?” Wild asks.

Four tenses up again at just a vague mention of the cult. He nods stiffly, suddenly unable to sit still.

“I could try and even it out if you’d like,” Wild suggests. “But only if you’re okay with it.”

Four nods again, and he says nothing as Wild slowly runs his fingers through Four’s hair, trying to remove as many tangles as he can, then gently begins sawing away at the uneven parts with a blade, being careful to not hurt him or even pull too hard.

Four lifts his hand up to his neck. The scabs are still there from being cut, though barely, but there’s no blood, no uneven strands, and no handcuffs.

Despite that Wild did it with what was presumably a knife or a sword, it turned out well.

Four can put up with this until his hair grows out.

He tries to thank Wild, but he finds his words caught in his throat.

The smile Wild gives him when he looks back, though, tells him that what he wanted to say didn’t go unheard.

Even though he’s exhausted, Four can’t bring himself to fall asleep. Too many thoughts are running through his head.

_ Deku didn’t deserve to die. _

_ Keaton didn't deserve to die. _

_ Stone didn’t deserve to die. _

_ I killed Stone and didn’t care. _

_ I killed them all and didn’t care. _

_ What if I get taken again? What then? I’m not safe here. _

_ Why are they being so kind to me? I was broken down to nothing. I  _ **_am_ ** _ nothing. Why do they still love me? _

_ This isn’t right. _

_ It isn’t right. _

_ It isn’t RIGHT! _

He gasps softly as Zelda’s hand covers his.

He looks over at her.

Her red hair is down, and she’s wearing a white dress with blue symbols at the bottom.  _ Malon must’ve lent it to her, _ Four thinks.

_ Probably because we got the blood from everyone we killed all over her other outfit. _

_ We tried to kill her, too. _

_ There’s no way she still loves us. _

There are a hundred things Four wants to tell her, a thousand disjointed thoughts piling up in his head and a million ways he wants to just scream at someone, some _ thing _ , until this weight finally lets him go, but it’s all too much and he’s silent.

“I’m sorry they took you,” Zelda says softly. “I’m sorry you had to endure whatever it was they did. And I get that I don’t get it, and that I may  _ never _ get it even if you tell me everything. But I want to be here for you anyways.”

The gesture alone makes Four want to cry. It’s weak, he  _ knows _ how  _ weak _ he’s being, but…

“I love you.”

It’s all he can say.

Her brilliant sapphire eyes meet his.

“I love you too.”

He leans his head against her shoulder, and the second he feels safe enough to do so he falls asleep on her.

The last thing he hears before that is Zelda’s voice as she softly sings to him.

“Just close your eyes,

The sun is going down.

You’ll be alright,

No one can hurt you now.

Come morning light,

You and I’ll be safe and sound…”

**Author's Note:**

> While this fic is heavily focused on the hurt part of hurt/comfort, it is not meant to be mindless torture. The purpose behind writing this was to indulge the idea of breaking a strong character down to nothing and having them have to build back up from rock bottom and learn to love and be loved again.  
> The sequel will explore the second half of that idea more, but it starts in this one when he's rescued and once again exposed to being shown love.


End file.
